Monday Runday: Week 1

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend, I sure did! I ran, ate a lot of delicious food, and got to visit family. All in all, a pretty great weekend! 🙂

As I mentioned in Wednesday’s post, my mom and I are in full-on training mode for our next half marathon in early May. We have just 4 weeks to train for it – here’s how Week 1 shaped up.

Monday – 6 miles + yoga. I’m not going to lie, I’ve pretty much forgotten everything about this run since it was a week ago. So, moving on…

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday – off. I did run up and down the stairs of subway stations, so I hope that counts for something. 😉

Friday– 3 miles (in my new Asics Gel-Electro33’s! Full review to come.).

The first two were at a relatively fast pace for me (8:45ish/mile). Then I ran home and grabbed Brady to join me for the last mile. Brady LOVES his sprints/walks, but he definitely needs a little help in the endurance category. My mom and I have been taking him on 1 mile runs every few days to see if we can turn him into a new running buddy.

He started off quite fast, happily running alongside me at a sub 9 min./mile pace. Once the excitement wore off, he slowed down a lot, especially when he realized I was going to make him run up a big hill. But with a little cheering (“Come on Brady! Who’s a good dog?! YOU ARE, YOU CAN RUN UP THIS HILL, I KNOW YOU CAN!”), he found the boost he needed to make it to the top. 🙂

After our run, Brady plopped down on his bed for a recovery nap and I did a nice, challenging upper-body workout from Fitness Blender for my cross-training.

Saturday – 4 miles (8:41/mile). My comfort zone pace is usually around 9-9:30/mile, but I’ve been feeling really good pushing the pace lately! Maybe it’s been the increase in my cross-training, or maybe it’s just the warm weather that allowed me to run in capris on BOTH Friday and Saturday. Either way, I’m loving it. Now, I just hope my knee keeps playing nice and that I can continue the solid training through to May 3rd (race day!).

Sunday– 8 miles on Easter Sunday with my mama. We toned down the pace for this one, averaging around 9:30/mile. It was in the 30s and SUPER WINDY, which did not feel great after the 50 degree weather of the past couple days. Still, we got it done. We spent the rest of the day visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousins, and eating a SERIOUS feast.

Monday– I have 6 miles on the agenda for today and more yoga tonight! My hamstrings felt a little tight on the 8-miler, so I’m looking forward to a lot of downward dog, forward folds, and a little relaxation.

This week, I’m looking forward to a little weekend 5k- The Homes For Our Troops 5k! With any luck, we won’t get snowed out of this one.

Awesome job with the running! You are doing great with pushing the pace 🙂
Your Brady story is so precious too. Makes me wanna try running with a dog. We have a huge, old English mastiff though who can barely WALK around our block hahaha. That’s ok though cuz he’s a sweetheart.